Broccoli and cauliflower

It felt like spring had arrived on Saturday as we were working away in one of our vegetable patches in the warm sunshine. The weekend’s main activity was to plant out the broccoli and cauliflower plants that we’ve been overwintering in one of our greenhouses since October. They probably should have gone out a couple of weeks ago but with the ground being quite wet and other (more pressing) jobs to do we ended up keeping them in a greenhouse a little longer than we’d planned. The appearance of a couple of yellowing leaves (which you can see in the photo below) was a tell-tale sign that they were getting a little bit root bound so we knew they couldn’t stay in their pots much longer.

Thankfully the ground dried out quite a lot towards the end of last week and the weather on Saturday was glorious. In the end we managed to get the two beds weeded, thoroughly dug over (incorporating some homemade compost as we went), and everything planted before the day was finished. It was hard work to get it all done but you can see some of the worthwhile result below. Let’s just hope the plants like their new home.

The final touch was added on Sunday when we covered the plants over with netting to keep the local wood pigeons and pheasants at bay. It seems to be doing the trick so far so it should now just be a case of keeping on top of the weeding and watering until it’s time to start harvesting in a few months. On to the next job!